Unlikely Friendship: Woman offers homeless man a job and a place to live

CLEAR LAKE, Texas (FOX 26) - How many times have you driven by someone who’s homeless and wondered, "How did they end up here?" Well, a woman in Clear Lake did just that, but then she did something that most people would consider “unthinkable”.

What Ginger Sprouse did completely changed Victor Hubbard’s life. For years, he lived on the street until Mrs. Sprouse stopped one day and had a conversation with him.

When we caught up with the two, we videotaped Hubbard arriving for work, and it hit me that a man arriving for work seems pretty uneventful until you consider everything that has happened to Hubbard. For years he lived on a bench with traffic rushing by on NASA Road 1 in Clear Lake, and for three years business owner Ginger Sprouse drove by wondering "What's his story?"

“It was just the prompting of God. That’s all I can say at the end of the day. That was just it. He wasn’t going to allow me to drive by anymore without me finding out why he was there,” explains Sprouse. That conversation ultimately turned into Sprouse and her husband putting Hubbard in a hotel. Then she offered him a job at her cooking school Art of the Meal.

“I immediately knew how gentle he was and what a kind spirit he had and he was very gracious and welcoming,” adds Mrs. Sprouse.

“It’s been extraordinary because it’s been more than I expected,” smiles Hubbard.

”He actually has two jobs now. When I have cooking classes he helps clean up and he greets the guests and talks to people,” explains Sprouse.

”I am so thankful. I am so grateful. I’d just like to say everything has changed for the better,” Hubbard says.

Hubbard is also now a greeter at another restaurant. So what is Hubbard's story? Well, suffering mental illness he fell on hard times until a woman with a heart the size of Texas took him into her life and now Hubbard lives in the Sprouse's home.

”We were friends for eight or nine months before he came and stayed with us,” says Mrs. Sprouse.

“I feel more loved. I feel more needed and I feel more welcomed,” smiles Hubbard “I like to make other people smile. I like to see people happy”.

Hubbard says he believes the Sprouse's were literally sent to him from God. ”I think they truly were”.

Hubbard is now getting medical care and the 32-year-old got a chance to visit his mother whom he hadn't seen in years. “It was wonderful. I got to embrace her again because I really miss her. We belong together”.

”We don’t all have to take somebody home with us, but a kind word goes a long way. Rolling down your window and saying dude I don’t have anything for you but what’s your name, showing some humanity,” says Sprouse.

How long will Hubbard live with the Sprouse's? They say as long as he wants to. This is a story clearly touching people around the world. A Go Fund Me page has been set up to help Hubbard. So far more than $35,000 has been donated.